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Revista Brasileira
de Ornitologia
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Volume 19
Número 1
Março 2011
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Revista Brasileira de Ornitologia, 19(1):81-84
Março de 2011
Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus): bath and drink
Ivan Sazima
Museu de Zoologia, Caixa Postal 6.109, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 13083‑970, Campinas, SP, Brasil (retired and associated as voluntary
researcher). E‑mail: isazima@gmail.br
Recebido em 13/12/2010. Aceito em 21/02/2011.
Resumo: Urubu-de-cabeça-preta (Coragyps atratus): banhar e beber. Poucos estudos sobre aves enfocam comportamentos
como o tomar banho ou água, essenciais para a maioria das aves. Apresento aqui os comportamentos de banhar e beber do urubude-cabeça-preta (Coragyps atratus). Essas aves ubíquas tomam banho principalmente em dias quentes, mas também se banham
em dias frios. Usam poças rasas em riachos de águas límpidas, poças barrentas, ou tomam banho de chuva. Os banhos podem ser
em grupo (com hierarquia presente), aos casais, ou solitários. Os urubus tomam desde água límpida de riachos, até a poluída por
esgotos urbanos e a ligeiramente salina de estuários. A função do banho possivelmente está relacionada à termorregulação, além de
manutenção da plumagem. O banho também pode servir para impedir acúmulo de ácido úrico que se forma durante a urohidrose,
mecanismo mais comum de termorregulação em urubus. Tomar água poluída pode estar relacionado com a capacidade de essas aves
neutralizarem toxinas de alimento em decomposição, ao passo que tomar água ligeiramente salina pode ser uma característica de
populações que vivem à beira-mar.
Palavras-Chave: Cathartidae, manutenção, asseio de plumagem, tomada de líquido.
Key-Words: Cathartidae, maintenance behaviour, plumage care, liquid uptake.
Several papers describe uncommon or odd natu‑
ral history features for a variety of Brazilian birds. Some
recent examples include fruit dispersal by raptors, deer
cleaning by trumpeters, bait-fishing by herons, and dog
cleaning by vultures (e.g. Galetti and Guimarães 2004,
Peres 1996, Sazima 2009, 2010). On the other hand,
there is a general lack of papers describing common be‑
haviours such as bathing or drinking, inasmuch as these
seem to be regarded as too much trivial to merit a place
in the literature. However, both of these behaviours are
vital for the maintenance and living of birds (e.g. Burton
1985), and there still are facets of these two behaviours
that remain unexploited.
I describe here the bathing and drinking behav‑
iours of the Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus), comment
on the circumstances they occur, and relate them to
other vital behaviours such as feather maintenance and
thermoregulation.
Methods
Bathing and drinking vultures were recorded
whenever spotted during field trips in the areas of Uba‑
tuba (~22°26’S, 44°04’W) and Campinas (~22°54’S,
47°03’W) in South-eastern Brazil. The birds were ob‑
served with naked eye, through 10 × 50 binoculars and a
70‑300 telephoto zoom lens mounted on a SLR camera,
from a distance of about 3‑50 m. “Ad libitum” and “be‑
haviour” sampling rules (Martin and Bateson 1986),
both of which are adequate for opportunistic records,
were used throughout the observations. Additionally, I
analysed a series of photographs and a short video-clip
taken by a colleague in the area of Ilhabela (~23°49’S,
45°22’W), also in South-eastern Brazil. Voucher copies
of digital photographs are on file at the Museu de Zoo‑
logia da Universidade Estadual de Campinas (ZUEC).
Water salinity at tidal streams was measured with a hand
refractometer.
Results
I recorded Black Vultures bathing in places as diverse
as shallow pools in clear water streams, muddy puddles in
pastures, and urban ponds (Figures 1‑3). Bathing takes
place mostly on warm days (air temperature up to 36°C),
but vultures bathe in cold and windy days as well (down
to about 15°C). Habitually the bird enters the water up
to its thighs or belly, lowers the carpal end of one wing
and immerses it, then lowers the opposite wing and do
the same while raising the now soaked wing, and lowers
and pushes the head underwater. It then raises the head
and the wing (Figure 1), and splashes itself with energetic
sideways motions of the body while fluffing the feathers
up. Occasionally it lowers one wing only and pushes the
82
Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus): bath and drink
Ivan Sazima
head underwater, then lowers the other wing and raises
both the head and the wing, splashing the water over its
body. Its plumage, particularly on the breast and belly
becomes thus soaked. While still in the water, the bird
stands upright and beats the wings vigorously soaking
the body further, as the wings touch the water surface
at times. After the bath, the bird leaves the water usu‑
ally moving and rearranging the wings and ruffles its now
soaked plumage (Figure 2). Once out of the water, the
bird often outspreads the wings, its back to the sun (Fig‑
ure 3). Bathing is always followed by preening bouts.
Vultures bathe solitarily, in couples, or in groups.
When bathing in groups, hierarchy among the group
members is usually displayed, dominant individuals dis‑
placing the others from a given site in a pool or puddle.
Black Vultures also bathe under drizzles (Figure 4), and
even under rainstorms. While rain-bathing, the bird out‑
spreads the wings and may remain stationary or walk
slowly (Figure 4). Rain-bathing may be performed soli‑
tarily or in groups. In the latter instance there are hierar‑
chy displays.
I recorded vultures drinking from crystal clear pools,
rain puddles, lakes polluted with domestic sewage, and
even from tidal streams with salinity up to 8‰. When
salinity is higher, however, the vultures seek other water
sources to drink (e.g. rain puddles). To drink, the bird
may be at the water edge or standing in the water up to
the thighs and occasionally up to the belly. It lowers the
head and usually immerses the bill completely (Figure 5),
while briefly opening and closing it. However, in shal‑
low puddles, only part of the bill is immersed (Figure 6).
To swallow, the bird raises the head and usually holds it
horizontally (Figure 5). As it occurs while bathing, when
drinking in groups there are hierarchy displays and the
dominant individuals expel others from a drinking spot.
Discussion
A prominent feature of bathing Black Vultures is
the asynchronous lowering of wings into the water (Rea
1983, present paper), a behaviour that differs from bath‑
ing by several other birds, which move the wings more
or less synchronously during the bath (e.g. Rea 1983,
Carboneras 1992, Collar 2005). However, birds such as
swans and spoonbills drop their wings asynchronously
(e.g. Burton 1985, IS pers. obs.), whereas some gulls drop
their wings both synchronously and asynchronously dur‑
ing bathing bouts (IS pers. obs.). Thus, the role of asyn‑
chronous versus synchronous or roughly synchronous
movements of wings during bathing, if any, remains
unclear.
One way vultures regulate body temperature is
through urohydrosis (Snyder and Snyder 1991, Houston
1994, Sick 1997). These birds void their excretory wastes
on the legs, a behaviour that cools these appendages as
the water contained in the wastes evaporates (Houston
1994, Sick 1997). As the water also cools the blood cir‑
culating under the evaporative surfaces of the legs, the
blood cooled this way circulates through the body and
thus radiate excessive heat (Snyder and Snyder 1991,
Houston 1994). A behaviour that would prevent a dan‑
gerous build-up of uric acid through urohydrosis is bath‑
ing (Snyder and Snyder 1991), which is a way to regulate
body temperature as well.
Bathing in cold days and rain-bathing may have
other function than regulation of body temperature,
however. As the lives of vultures depend on the efficiency
of their wings, feather maintenance is of utmost impor‑
tance to these birds (Houston 1994). Thus, bathing in
cold days and under rain washes the feathers and may
help in their maintenance, inasmuch that after a rainbath the birds carefully preen the feathers into shape
(Houston 1994, IS pers. obs.). Sunning, including after
a bath, plausibly maintain the flight feathers in optimal
conditions (Houston 1994).
Agonistic interactions among vultures are a com‑
mon sight whenever these birds congregate (Houston
1994, Buckley 1999), be it at roosts, food sources (even
the weird ones, see Sazima 2010), or bathing and drink‑
ing places (present paper). Adults are dominant over ju‑
veniles, and aggression is directed mostly towards nonkin
individuals (Buckley 1999).
Drinking in vultures is roughly similar to that found
in several other birds, although vultures do not throw
head back as most birds do (e.g. Burton 1985, de Juana
et al. 2004), but hold it horizontally (Buckley 1999). The
ability to drink water polluted with domestic sewage may
be related to the carrion-eating habits of vultures. These
birds likely have evolved mechanisms to cope with bacte‑
rial toxins found in carcasses and decayed food (Houston
1994, Sick 1997). As domestic sewage mostly does not
contain poisons other than bacterial toxins and bacteria
themselves, the black vulture benefits from its ability to
detoxify bacterial poisons (Buckley 1994) while drinking
water polluted with human domestic wastes. However,
drinking saline water (even if slightly) may be a problem,
as the bird must cope with the thus ingested salt. How
vultures deal with the salt uptake remains unresolved, as
they have no salt glands (their kidney may perhaps cope
with small quantities of salt). As I recorded drinking
slightly saline water only for vultures that dwell at or near
the seashore, their populations possibly differ from those
in the inland regarding water type uptake. Additionally,
these seashore populations scavenge mostly on fishes and
other marine organism either discarded by fishermen or
washed ashore. Thus, seafood adds to the salt excretion
issue.
As a final remark, I note that even trivial but vital
behaviours such as bathing and drinking merit closer
Revista Brasileira de Ornitologia, 19(1), 2011
Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus): bath and drink
Ivan Sazima
83
Figures 1‑6: Black Vultures (Coragyps atratus) bathing and drinking. (1) In a clear stream pool, a vulture splashes the water on its body with
sideways motions. (2) Muddy puddles are used for baths as well, this vulture bathing in a cold, windy day. (3) In warm weather, a vulture spreads its
wings, fluffs its body feathers up, and orients its back towards the sun after a bath. (4) Collective bath under a drizzle in a cloudy, warm day. (5) Three
vultures drink from a tidal stream, the first aligned individual with its bill almost completely immersed and the third one at the final phase of swal‑
lowing. (6) A vulture drinks from a shallow, 2.5 cm deep rain puddle. Photographs by Paulo Dutra (1) and Ivan Sazima (2‑6).
attention by the field and lab biologists, who may find
them complex (see Reis et al. 2010) and appealing.
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to Paulo Dutra for his very instrumental
photographs and video of vultures bathing, and for sharing with me
his records and observations; Marlies Sazima and Giulia B. D’Angelo
for pleasant company and help in the field; the CNPq for an earlier,
decisive financial support.
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